Private banking benefits its high-income clients with personalized services which contrast with mass services rendered by retail banking. The Italian group ALBERTINI SYZ is active in private banking, managing assets for both private and institutional investments, as well as alternative investments (hedge funds). The partnership between Albertini, a major player in the Italian financial markets and the Swiss banking group SYZ & CO strives for only the highest quality of products and services.
Talented fund managers include vice president Alfredo Piacentini, who has 30 years of experience in areas ranging from market analysis to fund management to mergers and acquisitions. As a founding shareholder of Banque SYZ & CO and a member of the Steering Committee, Alfredo Piacentini banchiere, directs activities of private wealth management and centralized management, including the division of investment funds for the Oyster Italian Opportunities Fund. As vice chairman of Banca Albertini Syz & C., Alfredo Piacentini has helped develop the group’s exceptional reputation in the private banking industry.
Within the group, hedge funds are selected in a four-stage process: identification of potential investments; investment analysis; assessment of risk management; and committee approval of the manager of the funds. To ensure that clients’ portfolios meet their objectives, a system of accountability was developed that involves the management team funds supervision for risk management. The group is especially concerned with changes in strategies or portfolios that are no longer in line with the original strategy as well as changes in the spread between the yields desired and those achieved.
Private banking like that done by ALBERTINI SYZ is subject to supervision of individual positions rather than on aggregated results, in keeping with the personal nature of private banking services. Portfolios are built based on both “bottom up” influence of managers and “top-down” guidance influenced by macroeconomic trends, new opportunities, and new risks. This system tends to optimize the use of the talents of the portfolio managers.
Successful creation of hedge fund portfolios requires a balance between managing positions already in the fund portfolio and capitalizing on expanded opportunities. Risk management is very important in this type of private banking services and is a process of selecting hedge funds with due diligence and systemic monitoring, as well as diversification according to individual clients’ styles and strategies. Quantitative monitoring involves analysis of Value at Risk, as well as stress tests and comparison with business models.
Risk management is an extremely important part of the management of hedge funds, and this is one place where private banking stands out, devoting attention to the exposure of each hedge fund, the liquidity of hedge funds assets, and the structural and operational risks that go along with alternative investments. Of course, hedge funds necessarily require a high tolerance for risk on the part of the individual investor, because these funds may be exposed to higher risks than traditional mutual funds.
Hedge funds may in fact waive some of the prohibitions and restrictions that ordinary funds are subject to. Therefore, any such investments must be considered only after a careful consideration of fund rules as well as all the information, clarifications, and explanations available about the funds. With private banking services such as those provided by highly experienced managers like Alfredo Piacentini, the client is assured of receiving all the relevant information with which to make sound decisions on alternative investments.